~ A collection of case studies, tools, knowledge, experiences, and research outputs by Jose Falck-Zepeda, colleagues at IFPRI and the Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS), and developing/developed country partners; on the socio-economic assessments of genetically modified organisms and other technologies. Photograph is of Bt/RR maize in Isabela province, Northern Luzon, Philippines; a country with over 500,000 hectares of Bt/RR maize.

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The GM crop regulatory pipeline in Africa – within the next five years?

With some colleagues at IFPRI/PBS and through our extensive network of national and regional partners, we have compiled a list of those GM technologies undergoing confined field trials in Africa. Some, but not all, may come into commercialization approval within the 5 year time horizon described in the background document. We have not included technologies currently in contained use evaluation such as the bio-fortified sorghum and weevil resistant sweet potato in Kenya, a viral resistant tomato in Egypt, and several technologies being tried in South Africa which we could not identify proponent or stage. Note that many of these technologies are public-private and public-public partnerships. Even those listed with one proponent, usually means that is the main proponent, but is likely to be a consortium of research organizations.

Table of advanced GM technologies in Africa

Country

Crop

Trait under testing

Stage

Partners

Uganda

Maize

Drought tolerance

CFT, 2nd season

NARO,AATF

Uganda

Banana

Bacterial wilt resistance

CFT

NARO,AATF,IITA

Uganda

Banana

Nutrition enhancement (Fe and Pro-vitamin A)

CFT

NARO, QUT

Uganda

Cassava

Virus resistance

CFT, 2nd season

NARO,Danforth Plant Sci. Center,IITA,

Uganda

Cotton

Bollworm resistance and herbicide tolerance

CFT, 3rd season

NARO

South Africa

Maize

Drought Tolerant

African Agricultural Technology Foundation(AATF), Monsanto (USA)

South Africa

Cassava

Biofortified and modified starch

HarvestPlus

South Africa

Sugarcane

virus resistance, increased yields, alternative products

South Africa

Maize

Maize IR resistant to MSV

U.of CapeTown,Pannar Seed Co.

South Africa

Potatoes

IR

Agricultural Research Council (South Africa),Michigan State University (US)

South Africa

Sorghum

Biofortified

ICRISAT, the U of Pretoria, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), the Agricultural Research Council for South Africa (ARC), the Burkina Faso Environmental and Agricultural Research Institute (INERA) and the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) in Nigeria

In terms of the impact of these technologies in the pipeline, the focus of many of these crops will be on crops and traits with an increased emphasis on food security and nutritional considerations –some of these technologies are anticipated to also raise income as cash crops- so the expectation is that the economic impact will be at least the same if not better than what we have observed with existing technologies. We have conducted an extensive literature review of existing publications with an identifiable degree of peer review (Smale et al. 2009). You can review the literature database here http://ebrary.ifpri.org/cdm/search/collection/p15738coll6/searchterm/%20case%20studies/mode/exact) . There are approximately 252 papers with and identifiable peer review approval process in this database.

Our conclusion in the Smale et al (2009) review is that that the evidence from ex ante and ex post studies show there are( potential and observed) tangible net economic benefits to the adoption of GM crop technologies in developed and developing countries. These results are quite variable in terms of crops, traits, location and producers. These same studies have shown other direct and indirect impacts derived from the adoption of this technology including reductions in some pesticides while others may increase, a shift to less toxic chemistries, support of integrated pest management, adoption of sustainable agricultural practices such as low-till and no-till agriculture and others. Our conclusions for the 2009 literature review were later supported by meta-analysis conducted by Areal et al. 2012 and Finger et al 2011 specifically for cotton, and by our multiple socioeconomic studies which we have conducted on site. More on the impact issue later.

About the main author

My name is Jose Falck-Zepeda. I am a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Any opinions herein are those of the author(s) posting in this blog and do not necessarily reflect the policies or opinions of IFPRI, its partners, or collaborators. My email if you need to contact me is j.falck-zepeda@cgiar.org.

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